To boost Taiwan’s international competitiveness, the government has launched a “bilingual nation” policy, pledging to achieve this goal by 2030. After the new Cabinet takes shape, it should promptly review the implementation of the policy, and then make adjustments if needed.
How can Taiwanese’s English be improved? The answer is simple: Better English education would be a start. Oddly, many universities and even the College Entrance Examination Center (CEEC) are doing the opposite at the moment, taking Taiwan further away from becoming a “bilingual nation.”
The CEEC, for example, which holds the General Scholastic Ability Test (GSAT) in January as well as the Advanced Subjects Test (AST) in July every year, last year removed English as a subject from the AST. Such assessment without the English subject is certainly unfavorable to the bilingual policy. The removal of English has misled the public into believing that English is no longer valued and that they should not take it seriously.
Soon after the AST abandoned English, as many as 104 university departments announced that they would no longer take the results of the GSAT’s English subject as a criterion for admission starting this year, hoping to attract freshmen by dumping English amid the “low-birthrate tsunami” hitting Taiwan. Due to this trend, many in Taiwan seem to believe that English-related departments at universities are of limited use, leading to a plunge in enrollment.
Meanwhile, some universities have been saving personnel costs by turning English courses from compulsory to elective or cutting them extensively. This means that college students do not need to learn English anymore. There are also universities that have been cheating the Ministry of Education out of its grants for “EMI” (English-medium instruction) courses by fabricating various programs, and schools that have been overdoing EMI by teaching Chinese in English only, departing from the original intention of the bilingual policy.
As for elementary and high schools, the biggest challenges remain the insufficiency in English class hours, the shortage of competent English teachers and the rigidity of teaching methods.
To enhance the public’s English skills, the Cabinet should first instruct the CECC to resume the AST’s English subject, and encourage universities to take the test results of the English subject as a criterion for admission, which would help reverse people’s impression that English is of little importance.
Next, it should prioritize pushing every university to provide quality English courses, rather than teaching all academic subjects in English only. Offering classes in English is not a bad idea, but it should be accomplished gradually, and with a strict review mechanism for the ministry’s EMI grants.
Finally, schools at all levels should increase the number of English courses, provide teacher training, and adopt pragmatic materials and flexible teaching methods simultaneously, such as using multimedia to guide students to communicate in English in the real world.
Taiwan’s average Test of English for International Communication score of 565 in 2021 lagged far behind the scores of its neighbors such as Japan (574), South Korea (679) and Malaysia (681), showing that improving Taiwanese’s English skills is necessary.
However, the government seems to have got the focus wrong, working hard to promote EMI courses while sitting back and watching the CEEC remove English as a subject and universities cut English courses. As its bilingual policy fails to clarify the order of priority, it can hardly tackle the problems at the root.
Eddy Chang is a university assistant professor of English.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) founder Morris Chang (張忠謀) has repeatedly voiced concern over the weakening cost competitiveness of its US fabs and challenged the US’ “on-shore” policy of building domestic semiconductor capacity. Yet not once has the government said anything, even though the economy is highly dependent on the chip industry. In the US, the cost of operating a semiconductor factory is at least twice the amount required to operate one in Taiwan, rather than the 50 percent he had previously calculated, Chang said on Thursday last week at a forum arranged by CommonWealth Magazine. He said that he had
Former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), also a former chairman of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), has said that he plans to travel to China from Monday next week to April 7 to pay his respects to his ancestors in Hunan Province. The trip would mark the first cross-strait visit by a former president of the Republic of China (ROC) since its government’s retreat to Taiwan in 1949. Ma’s trip comes amid China’s increasing air and naval incursions into Taiwan’s air defense identification zone, and at a time when Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) continues to seek to annex Taiwan. Ma’s trip could be
The International Criminal Court (ICC) arrest warrant issued on Friday last week for Russian President Vladimir Putin delighted Uighurs, as Putin’s today signals Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) tomorrow. The crimes committed by Xi are many times more serious than what Putin has been accused of. Putin has caused more than 8 million people to flee Ukraine. By imprisoning more than 3 million Uighurs in concentration camps and restricting the movement of more than 10 million Uighurs, Xi has not only denied them the opportunity to live humanely, but also the opportunity to escape oppression. The 8 million Ukrainians who fled
Disruption is coming to the agriculture sector. Around the world, livestock farmers are leaving the land, policymakers are targeting the harmful environmental and social effects of industrial meat production, and consumers are shifting away from meat to embrace healthier, more sustainable alternatives. With the sector approaching a crossroads, decisionmakers in government, industry and civil society need to heed the lessons gained from major transitions in other industries and start preparing. Preparation requires a careful inventory of farmers, workers and consumers’ needs. While farmers are growing older and leaving the land for other pursuits or retirement, the agriculture sector is struggling to